They're Gonna Do It All!

Building a beach in their backyard...

Giving a monkey a shower...

They're typical, if not some of the more mundane activities that two overly-imaginative kids get up to during their summer holidays!

Young children in school must be the luckiest beings on earth. They have no responsibilities whatsoever aside from doing their homework and the occasional chores, have easy school work and loads of free time and, best of all, a 104-day summer break! Being kids, it must be sort of overbearing to come up with ideas to make each day worthwhile (THAT'S how lucky they are)...

Which is what Phineas and Ferb are all about!

To all the overly-imaginative kids outside the cartoon realm, Phineas and Ferb may be the creative outlet needed to display all the ingenious planning in their minds on some of the wackiest summer holiday activities anyone can ever come up with! Bringing never-before-seen plans to zest up any boring summer day, Phineas is the big thinker, with his stepbrother, Ferb, as the genius who realizes his plans. From building large ice-cream machines to monster trucks that could convert into the family car in an instant, Ferb is the quiet yet highly intelligent inventor who seems to dwell in the shadow of his creative, more outgoing stepbrother Phil, and yet does not appear to mind. They have a pet platypus, Perry, which ALSO happens to be a secret agent with an evil arch-nemesis, Doofenschmirtz (I think). Phineas and Ferb think Perry is a mere platypus who does nothing at all and disappears almost everytime they come up with an ingenious activity ("Hey... where's Perry?"); boy, they've never been more wrong. While their plans are being realized, Perry is undercover, on his way to foiling yet another of the evil (yet surprisingly moronic and funny) genius Doofenschmirtz's plans to... overtake the world, I'm guessing. Doofenschmirtz's ebuln3ss makes Mojo Jojo seem like a terrorizing big-headed monkey- Err wait a minute, that sounds just about right when it's not supposed to be...

Anyway, behind every successful genius plan is a Thwarter, as I'd like to call it- a person with much more conservative (and undeniably more logical) views and reasonings; at least one person who wouldn't be stoked to see the plan realized. In this particular case, the Thwarter is Candace, their older, teenage sister whose only (may I say overused and unimaginative) move everytime seeing her brothers come up with something is to call their Mom. Being inside the typical cartoony world, she NEVER succeeded in showing their mother the true works of genius Phineas and Ferb manage to scheme everytime! I'm guessing their father is a wee bit on the clueless side- an artist- who appears very docile and harmless. He was even involved in their monster truck plan to help Candace gain her confidence in parallel parking. Candace happens to have a huge crush on this guy I can't remember the name of- he seems to be about the only thing that could distract her off of trying to tell on her brothers.

Their mother, Mom (she has no specific name that I know of) seems like the type of mother who can't sit still at home during her children's (presence!) summer holidays. She's always off to cooking class, at home playing cards with other moms while her children are out, doing grocery shopping while her children are having fun in their colossal backyard beach... though she seems like a decent enough mother. She is so used to Candace calling her during her activities and interrupting them that she gets insanely worried when Candace does not interrupt her at all and says that everything is fine while she's away, leading her to cut her current activity short to check up on them! That was what made me sure that she's a normal, caring decent Mom, despite her frequent absences around her children throughout the show.

And of course, there's Isabella- a very cute girl scout who, in my opinion, fancies Phineas, and thus is always around to help him realize his plans with her girl scout skills and, when necessary, friends. She's always calling him up to ask him on his most recent activity with a casual "Whatcha doooing?" and of course, always gets to join in the fun! One of her most notable (if not plausible- but what cartoon show would hit it off with kids if it were plausible?) contributions to Phineas and Ferb's plans has got to be leading her other Girl Scouts members as their pit crew when both boys decided to join in a car racing competition (may I just add, the girls made a kick-ass pit crew!).

If it ain't apparent enough yet, I love this show. Phineas and Ferb, though portrayed as big thinkers and always doing stuff that are not advisable to kids their age (or even anyone without some uber architectural and engineering skills, for that matter), are actually very nice kids who never fail to be polite to their friends and family and always think of other people to include in their fun. They share their temporary inventions with other people, are never bitter on Candace for her usual 'Ooh, I'm telling Mooom!' and never refuse to help other people. 'Sides, their show is fun without the stupidity- like most of the stuff Cartoon Network had to offer. I thought Cow and Chicken and I M Weasel are the worst cartoon shows on earth for kids. Boring and sort of vulgar. Not to mention Sheep in the Big City, Mike, Lu and Ogg, Ed, Edd and Eddy and others of the like. About the only cartoons I liked from Cartoon Network are the classic ones like Tom and Jerry and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Phineas and Ferb are on Disney Channel here and over in RT.
So that puts Fairly Odd Parents, of Nickelodeon, on the second spot of my favorite cartoons list!

And may I just note that anime *squeal!* is in NO WAY related to the genre of cartoons asides from the fact that they are both in 2D and for most of the time, highly colourful and non-realistic.